By Emma Stone, coventrytelegraph.net
AN ETHIOPIAN ASYLUM SEEKER who used a forged document to get a job in a Coventry crisp factory has been jailed for nine months.
Alazar Gebrezgiabhetr, aged 24, of Tarquin Close, Willenhall, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing a false identity document with intent.
Prosecutor Louise Pierpoint said Gebrezgiabhetr entered the UK in February 2003 seeking asylum and was given a document which prohibited him from working.
But he applied for a job at the Walkers Crisps factory in Baginton, presenting a UK travel document in his name.
It purported to give him Home Office permission to gain employment in the UK, and he began work in July 2007.
He was arrested following a joint immigration and police operation last month.
Gebrezgiabhetr said he bought the forged document for £260 from a man called Daniel, to whom he then had to return it, but claimed he thought it was genuine.
Stephen Crouch, defending, said Gebrezgiabhetr was an Eritrean national who had suffered brutal beatings in Ethiopia, and had flown to Britain with the aid of an agent who purported to be a friend.
As soon as he had entered the country the man took his passport, leaving him with no form of identity.
With few Eritreans in the UK, there was no network to help him and he ended up begging on the streets.
The opportunity then arose to obtain the false document and thereby to get work – and he took it.
Mr Crouch said Gebrezgiabhetr and his wife, who are both devout Christians, married at St John the Baptist church in Willenhall, Coventry, early last year, and his wife is now pregnant with their second child.
Jailing him, Recorder David Pittaway told him: “I have taken into account that you have pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and what has been said on your behalf.
“I have taken into account that you have a son and that your wife is pregnant and that in other respects you have endeavoured to be an honest, hardworking young man.”
He added: “I bear in mind that your wife has indefinite leave to remain and that although your first appeal against the refusal of asylum has been turned down, you have lodged a further appeal.”
11 thoughts on “Ethiopian asylum seeker in U.K. jailed over fake ID”
Dear mulumebet,
Read this aswell,Ethiopian problems in Uk are comlex. It’s not only as you said dechasa eater. There are many, many habeshas are now destitute becouse of their case has failed and unable to work.
God bless habesha.
This is the life we were talkin about when mulumebet wrote about how dechassa…people end up in jail for working!! unless you are in it it’s hard to judge from out side.
What! An Ethiopian? These guys are weird. They are Ethiopian when they arrest for falsification, forgery, terrorism, crimes and other bogus actions. They did not know the truth prevails in due time and every actions will be exposed for justice. Stop abusing Ethiopia!
“Stephen Crouch, defending, said Gebrezgiabhetr was an Eritrean national who had suffered brutal beatings in Ethiopia”.
I think there is a mistake here. The guy is an Eritrean national, not an Ethiopian, according to his defense attorney. The headline claims he is “Ethiopian”. Can anyone reflect on this?
Whatever circumstances a person is in, he should be always honest. I have no idea why someone without any reason beat up Alazar Gebrezgiabhere while he was in Ethiopia, so it is possible he left Ethiopia because he had been beaten up there by somebody, but why did he leave Eritrea?
After he entered London with an agent’s passport, he should have known he would be without a passport of his own because the passport he had was his fiend’s, his agent that brought him to England and left him without any passport, so his first deception is to come to England without a legal document. His second deception is to apply for job in London while he is holding a legal document that prohibits him to work in London. His third deception is that he had bought a forged document from Daniel and then gave it back to Daniel after he was hired to work. His fourth deception is that the forged document he bought with £260 was a real document, but in his heart of hearts, he might have known it was not a genuine one. Had he told the truth from the beginning before he ended up in jail, he would have saved himself from a lot of troubles and the honor of his country. When someone tells a lie, he is dishonoring himself, his country, and his creator.
How on earth a person who had been begging in the street of London, all a sudden got married and had children without first having a financial support and a passport problem?
My fellow Ethiopians and Eritreans, don’t follow Gebrezgiabhere’s footsteps; otherwise, you will end up begging in the streets or in jail if you do so.
Assta B. Gettu,
I don’t think you are familiar with the life in Uk or European countries. Since life is hard back home a lot of us are living in exile probably including you. The way we left our beloved country could be different from person to person. Therefore you don’t really know what really drove this guy out of his motherland using fake documents. Even using the fake document might not be true as it is normally used for seeking asylum purposes. So as an Ethiopian yourself (I am assuming you are) you should know using fake document is not a big deal comparing to the problems we have back home. I think you should only feel sorry for this brother. As he tried to work, pay TAX and support himself and his family. In my eyes you should blame the system, which is crippling lots of people who really want to work legally but not given the chance. Have you noticed, when did this brother arriv to this country? In 2003!! The guy is expected to sleep and wait for others to feed him for 5 yrs. But instead he tried to get hold of a document that will get him a job. I don’t know how one can blame this guy. I feel really sorry for thousands of immigrants here in the Uk who are denied to work specially when I think “what if it was me”? So you should ask the same question you self brother.
Dear Asseta B. Gettu
I read your comment it seems you lack some key pointes such as begging in the street of London doesn’t mean you lost your dignity or you are disabled person there a re hundreds white and Eastern Europeans who stretch their hands before us .
Actually I know this guy in person for me his nationality is not vital but he is an a attractive guy who left his country Eretria/ Ethiopia for better life like you and others ( Sorry I don’t know where you are of course I could imagine you a re not neither in Somalia nor Bagdad?)
To my understand getting married is not also big problem unlike what you said because Alazer is a young and sexy guy, who has got lot of admirers. So I suspect that his wife might fall in love with him ; not with his material/ financial worth.
To rescue some one life from his country doesn’t necessarily need genuine passport/ travel document if so all asylum seekers might not get a positive response from their respective host countries. So my dear Assata I’m not going to blame or condemn you because to me you are innocent in your mind any w ay seeing is believing . I hope Alazer would win the court battle and walks freely soon Peace
Guys don’t be foolish !!
It is now a lot Tigrna speaking Ethiopia leaving for aboard to seek an asylum as an Eriterans as if there are from Eritria. You kan see them all over Europe. There are really abandant if someone see them here he startes to wonder if a young man/girls remeains in Tigray. A number of them are was working home at various postions where corruptions high: custom office, immigration finance offices. When they get saturated the left to Europe or send there brothers and sister for further opportunities: May be to send the money they looted from the people of Ethiopia so that It could be saved in Europe/USA. Most them are runing business from Europe. For them to get visa is easy t,ex as an invenster, on scholarship basis and lastely corrupting some Europan Embassy such as the Italian Embassy and Greek embasis.
Dear Londener,
It is true I have never been to England, but I know the history of the British people vicariously. I left my country when life was better than it is now under the Woyanne regime. Then, Ethiopia and Eritrea were one – brothers and sisters – until the selfish Dictator Meles Seitanawi divided them and built barriers and hostilities between the two loving countries. They are now, may the Almighty God avoid, preparing to go to war again; I hope their plans to go to war be crushed by the divine power of God.
In the time of Thehaiu King Haile Selassie, Haile Selassie I University was full of students from Eritrea, Tigray, Gondar, Oromo, and from many other Ethiopian provinces and were living harmoniously, studying hard and graduating in great number. It may be rare to find Eritrean students now in the Ethiopian University; rather, we may find them now in Europe or in America, like Gebrezgiabhere, struggling to make a better living.
In the report I read Gebrezgiabhere left his country because he had been beaten up there; it may or it may not be true. Whatever reason he might have left Ethiopia or Eritrea for, I still insist we should go through the normal process to obtain the legal document, however hard it might be to get one; to do so is the safest way, and it will save us from many problems. If we use a fake document, we are then abusing the system and creating a real problem for the true asylum seekers. Once Gebrezgiabhere arrived in London, and knew he was in trouble, he should have immediately notified the Ethiopian Organization in London, and should have gotten some legal and financial help from that organization.
I don’t agree with your statement: “In my eyes you should blame the system, which is crippling lots of people who really want to work legally but not given the chance.” I think if people have the work permit, they will find a job, and that is why Gebrezgiabhere found a job by purchasing a legal document from Daniel. In reality, it is not, most of the time, the system that cripples people from working; it is the people who abuse and cripple the system by bringing forged documents and forcing the system to hire them, in this way breaking the system apart or shutting it down.
Of course, I’m very sympathetic toward my fellow man, Gebrezgiabhere, and at the same time, I’m advising people like him that they should follow the right course and struggle to find the right document. Also, I’m not against marriage, but I advise people to get first a high paying job rather than to find first a beautiful girl. Remember, my friend, you may not agree with me, that women are more materialistic than men, so men should be ready financially before they get married because we are living in a world that competition is so fearsome that girls prefer to marry the wealthy or the most educated person than the poor and mediocre one.
Dear Mango,
I too wish Gebrezgiabhere win the court battle and start a normal life again.
Anyway, if you are living by begging, other people are going to call you a beggar, a word that has a bad connotation like other bad words. When people call you a beggar, then you will lose your dignity among your communities. You, my friend, are wrong when you say that “nationality is not vital”; it is important; people would like to know or learn the culture and the history of your people if you reveal your nationality to them. By telling your nationality, you are helping your country to be known by many other people, and these people may go and visit your country, pouring their money into your country’s economy. I’m always proud to tell my nationality to people when they ask me even though sometimes they ridicule me by telling me why is that I’m not like those skinny boys and girls they saw from television in the 1980s.
Once again you are wrong when you say: “…he is an attractive guy….” My friend, attractiveness has nothing to do with leaving your country and begging in the streets of London: poverty does not distinguish between attractive and ugly people, between real asylum seekers and asylum abusers, and between those who do not want to reveal their true nationalities and those who tell their true countries. We don’t help people because they are attractive; we help people because they are human beings. Ugliness and attractiveness has nothing to do with a just world if the world is indeed a just world, not bias one.
O my Lord, how many times you got it wrong! People get married not because they are sexy but because they want to have children; they want to raise a family. For reasonable people like you to get married without preparing oneself for it is a big problem; if you marry just to gratify your carnal desire only, then your marriage will collapse in front your eyes.
You assert: “…Alazar has a lot of admirers,” if what you said is true, why was he then seen begging in the street of London? Why didn’t his admirers help him get legal work permit instead of a forged document?
You are a pitiful creature, a creature who does not believe in nationality, who helps people if they are attractive, who promotes beggary instead of hard work, who believes marriage is just for sexual purposes, and who advises people to marry before they get ready for it.
I still say that when people ask for asylum, they have to bring a real document why they are asking for asylum, a document that proofs they are persecuted in their country, and they fear that they would be killed or imprisoned if they go back to their place of origin.
Hey Mango, we are talking about the wrong doing of this man. you are puting a lot of emphasis on the man’s appearance, sexy bla bla. Do you fancy him?